Hi there @itsjblaze you are right, you had the most votes but the system I used doesn't recognize it by some reason. As you can see in the link provided in the question you will see which tool i'm using:
If you go on http://pick.esteem.ws/ which is the tool that picks the TOP voted, the most engaged and random comment it will, by some reason, not pick you as a winner even thought you have 37 votes and the announced winner has 35, so from now on I will monitor it manually as well. You can check by yourself, I DO NOT chose the winners, i thought this site was working fine but in fact it's not, so sorry about it.
@aka-alias I always use that tool to select the winners. If the most voted and most engaged are the same user, or it's me, I choose two random winners. What do you think it will improve transparency? This is the spreadsheet linked in the description of the contest on each question: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1vUjj-w95Uu6y1N7--pw1Fur3Z2aSaZiATqasRoh61sM/edit#gid=0
Maybe i should change the contest and make it 3 random winners? I think if you do a great comment and people votes on you then it makes sense that you win?
Nevertheless I sent you the amount that you would have won because it was my (well the website) mistake ;) and thanks for joining!
Okay. i understand now. Cus i was hurt when i saw that, its okay to check manually.
I just came out of a night-shift when posting that comment and wasn't thinking to my full capacity.
@itsjblaze, you are right. My apologies for missing the obvious.
@thepassanger, I think that's plenty of transparency. I like the idea of of the one with the most votes winning. Do you check if there are vote bots used by those participating? I see nothing in the rules about that but using them would be a "pay to win" scenario which doesn't seem fair. I also like that you try to select the best comment in your view and of course I think that is absolutely fine as it is you who organizes this thing. You should have a say in who wins.
The random win is also nice. I guess I would save that one for the Smart Cash prize.
So in conclusion. I wouldn't change much. Maybe ad the rule about not using bots and indeed double check the vote count. I wouldn't change the "most votes win" policy. It might activate peoples fiends to vote on their friend which in turn would make your blog grow even more, presumably. Keep it up!
Just on last question, what do you thing about the banner I made for you in my post a bit further down this thread? I hope it wasn't too presumptuous of me to suggest a new one...
Regarding SmartCash, is already the price given to the random winner :) about the banner, se above!